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Expansion of Medicaid is needed

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Saturday March 30, 2013 6:21 AM

The Ohio Academy of Family Physicians sees Medicaid expansion as a means to provide health-care
access and coverage in a way that shifts us from our current, extremely expensive sick-care system
to a true health-care system that focuses on keeping people well.

Expansion of Medicaid will help make that kind of care happen for Ohio’s most-vulnerable
citizens.

On behalf of its more than 4,300 family-physician, family-medicine residents and medical-student
members, the academy urges the General Assembly to expand Medicaid.

If not, the ripple effect will be felt by every Ohio resident. Failure to expand Medicaid doesn’t
simply deny coverage to the most vulnerable Ohioans. It creates an economic wave that will wash
over patients, hospitals and, ultimately, everyone in Ohio.

Research consistently shows that people who have health-insurance coverage are more likely to
have a regular, primary source of care, which results in better overall health and increased
control of chronic conditions. Studies also show that those lacking health-care coverage skip or
delay necessary preventive services and postpone care during the early and treatable stages of a
variety of illnesses. By the time these people seek help, they require much more intensive — and
expensive — care that could have been avoided.

Worse, they are less likely to have the resources to pay for that more-expensive care. This is
so shortsighted, as improved coverage leads to better overall population health, which, in turn,
leads to cost savings for both the state of Ohio and the federal government.

Without Medicaid expansion, hospitals and other health-care providers will face continued need
among the uninsured, struggle with reduced support for the free care they provide and be forced to
distribute their growing financial losses to their paying customers — readers and their insurance
company.

It means their insurer will likely raise premiums. It means their employer – or family — will
reassess the financial viability of continuing to buy health insurance.

Failure to expand Medicaid would be a shortsighted, highly politicized decision that will have a
long-term, negative effect on all Ohio residents. We urge the members of the Ohio General Assembly
to make the right decision and expand Medicaid.